University administrators have said the final decision on when those cuts would happen is scheduled to be made today.

More than 100 people gathered at the Sister Cities Plaza in Downtown Pueblo to rally against the cuts they are calling unnecessary and dangerous to the future of the school. They held signs and cheered as cars drove by.

The financial picture of the institution shows that $3.3 million needs to be cut from the budget.

Many in attendance urged CSU System Chancellor Michael Martin to reconsider his position.

Doug Eskew, an English professor at CSU-Pueblo, said up until a few months ago, staff and faculty had been told that the budget was doing fine and the fiscal year would end breaking even.

“Suddenly we were talking about people being fired,” Eskew said.

Eskew said the staff and faculty have had a history of being lied to about the school’s finances.

Eskew complained that Martin acted condescendingly and insulting to staff and faculty during a meeting with them earlier this month.

“There was no one in that room who was responsible for the debt that any budget had created, but he kept on saying, ‘You created this. You did this.’ ”

“A month ago you (Martin) came down here and tried to treat us like children. You thought that you could give us a lecture and we’d shut up. Well, you are wrong, chancellor, and you are going to find out soon enough.”

Fawn Amber Montoya, a CSU-Pueblo Chicano Studies professor, said the university is the lifeblood of Southeastern Colorado and is one of two universities statewide named as Hispanic Serving Institutions.

“I am pretty damn sure that you shouldn’t be cutting it if you want to educate Hispanics,” Montoya said.

She spoke about the hard work of Southern Colorado farmers and people who are served by the university.

“We are the children and grandchildren of coal miners, of steel mill workers, of farm laborers who spent their days doing backbreaking labor so that we would not have to live the lives that they did,” Montoya said.

“I’d like to think that this state would not forget the sacrifices of the people that built it.”

Ramon Padilla, a student graduating in May, said cutting positions will hurt students and the university as a whole.

“I graduated from a small school and I chose to come here because I could afford it and it was an awesome school. The cuts should come from somewhere else. Staff brings students.”

A forum with Martin about the proposed cuts is scheduled to be held today at 3 p.m. in the Occhiato University Center Ballroom.